4. Descriptions of any unique features or areas:A large map to continue the Rail Series, this time featuring the African Continent, the map starts off where the Rail Europe map left off. Consideration is given to the colour-blind by alpha-naming station lines on the map.

There is no inability to attack other lines at some stations (like in the European map), it is back to multi-line terminals and one territory two-line stations.

Of course, many of these lines don't yet exist, but maps do exist showing how developers would like to open up this continent.I have therefore taken some of these ideas to provide a cross-section of continent-lines small and large that can be attained.

Design-work will be set around something significant in the African style. Already the small one tert stations sit atop the army station like a vase being carried on one head.

whitestazn88 wrote:i am not the biggest fan of the rail series, although australia is a really cool one that i actually like...

i think your time could be better spent on other maps though.

el-presidente wrote:I have never really been that into the rail maps, and IMO, you should focus on your other 4 maps that are in production. Not that this doesn't look good, but I like your other maps better.

Thanks guys for your honesty, but now i'll give you mine.It would really help me if you guys and others would get into the other four maps in production & give some feedback. They have stalled for feedback, so i don't know whether it's just because everyone is on summer holds up there in the north or what, but it doesn't help me that no-one comments.

Rocketry wrote:I hate the way stations are labeled. Having just the three letters like that makes it difficult to understand and also does little for the maps character in my opinion.

Rocket.

Thanks Rocketry. All the rail series maps are labelled like that and will be fully explained in the xml drop list.I'm sorry you don't liek this method, but it is also a method that is used worldwide by all airline, trains and buses on your travel tickets. It is in fact reality.

As someone who enjoys the Rail series Carins I'm looking forward to this one. The one issue I have with the initial is that the hub cities are a little tough to figure out which line they attach to. For instance RBK has 8 lines coming into it and 6 stations. Now E flows through as does A so clearly they're are there but I cant tell which one is J and which one is G. I have the same issue in PRA on G and J as well, the colors are just too close for me.

Cool, another Railroad. All these comments are with the small map, since that's what I play on.

Some of the mini-letters seem a little cramped, especially in the middle of the map. And won't they get covered up on triple-numbers?

On the PRA hub, your colors are switched in relation to the incoming lines (the lighter is on top of the hub, but is the lower rail).

I think the continent could move a tad to the right so the key can fit on the page comfortably.

Not sure if I like all the colors in the map title. It makes it harder to read on that green tint.

The light blue rail color should probably be on a different part of the map because it currently intersects with the main water sections.

You may want to consider using a lighter rail color in place of that dark purple around the north and west because you have a dark line next to a dark border.

DJB is the wrong color.

In my opinion, having all those rails right on the border of the continent makes the map look a bit tacky. I know they're all ports, but maybe getting at least the single-rail port cities to be completely enclosed in the continent will help the map to feel like it is not falling off the continent.

Did you forget the army circle at BEC-N?

Alright, I'll cut off my critiques for now. Hopefully I'll remember to keep coming by for this one.

barterer2002 wrote:As someone who enjoys the Rail series Carins I'm looking forward to this one. The one issue I have with the initial is that the hub cities are a little tough to figure out which line they attach to. For instance RBK has 8 lines coming into it and 6 stations. Now E flows through as does A so clearly they're are there but I cant tell which one is J and which one is G. I have the same issue in PRA on G and J as well, the colors are just too close for me.

barterer2002...please review V2, I have changed many things as the design comes more together. You should be able to determine what it what now.

Above is a two station xml result showing that the armies will fit in those stations, but i am thinking that they could be one pixel bigger. What do others think, bearing in mind that this will have an overall effect on the map of increasing the size of all the stations/terminals.

Does it have to be do dark and drab? I like how Africa is in a silhouette but the area around that is really dull too. It sort of seems like it doesn't have any attraction to the map. It is like almost as if it is just the rails and nothing else.

captainwalrus wrote:Does it have to be do dark and drab? I like how Africa is in a silhouette but the area around that is really dull too. It sort of seems like it doesn't have any attraction to the map. It is like almost as if it is just the rails and nothing else.

So you just think that the drop shadow should be removed on the continent?

captainwalrus wrote:Does it have to be do dark and drab? I like how Africa is in a silhouette but the area around that is really dull too. It sort of seems like it doesn't have any attraction to the map. It is like almost as if it is just the rails and nothing else.

So you just think that the drop shadow should be removed on the continent?

I agree with him, but just getting rid of the drop shadow won't fix that. The only colors in the background are browns or grays. I really don't know what is needed but something needs to be added. I am bad witih feedback, sorry.

captainwalrus wrote:Does it have to be do dark and drab? I like how Africa is in a silhouette but the area around that is really dull too. It sort of seems like it doesn't have any attraction to the map. It is like almost as if it is just the rails and nothing else.

So you just think that the drop shadow should be removed on the continent?

I agree with him, but just getting rid of the drop shadow won't fix that. The only colors in the background are browns or grays. I really don't know what is needed but something needs to be added. I am bad witih feedback, sorry.

Maybe a dull gold/brown with a very grainy feel would be good for this map since the Sahara is the most prominent physical feature of the continent. Putting pyramids on the map would also be nice.

Did you forget a couple of D army circles and a few others? If you want the stations to share the army circle, perhaps put the letters on each side of the circle rather than top/bottom. The top one looks empty with the top/bottom approach.

I don't know if having the letter identifications between each army circle is going to work on the hubs because I can see some major colorblind issues with it.

The DSM station on the right side looks horribly beefed: L should actually be a K and the colors are switched.

H and K lines have too similar of a color to stay together both in the hub and coming out of it.